Thieves Take Christmas Presents, Guns From Osage County Couple's Home

Deputies are investigating after someone broke into the home of two volunteer firefighters and stole Christmas presents.

The Osage County Sheriff's office is investigating the burglary.

The victims, who volunteer at the Osage Hills rural fire department, said they came home from training last week to find some of their most prized possessions gone.

"When I walked in the front door, my back door was wide open," said Shirley Landsdown.

Todd and Shirley Landsdown came home last Wednesday night to find their back door was kicked in and several items were stolen.

"A TV, game system, blue ray player — things they could get rid of quick," Shirley said.

They also took several wrapped Christmas presents from the kitchen table but left a few under the Christmas tree and dropped a couple more on the way out.

"I knew I was missing a couple so I wanted to stack them on the table and make sure who had what," Shirley said.

"They definitely made a haul on that," Todd said.

The thieves also got off with two fire and police radios, a pager, several guns and Shirley's badge.

"Pretty horrible to take something of that kind of value that my fire department has to work very hard to purchase," Todd said.

The sheriff's office got some evidence from the house but said they don't have any reason to believe the family was targeted.

"What we generally see is just somebody just sees a house that looks empty, they stop, knock on the door and if somebody answers the door they ask for someone, and when they find out that person isn't there they pretend to have had the wrong house and if somebody isn't there then they find a window or a back door to kick in," said 13:31:54:13 Lt. Investigator Dale Hunter.

But for burglaries like this, Hunter said the best thing you can do to protect yourself is have cameras.

"Security cameras and still pictures like game cameras are very helpful — like in this burglary we don't have a vehicle description or anybody to look for in particular," he said.

The Landsdowns said they have installed cameras since the burglary, but for two people who risk their lives to save others, they still feel uneasy.

"You're used to going and helping somebody not being the victim," Todd said.

If you have any information that could help, contact the Osage County Sheriff's Office at 918-287-3131.